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GE's Immelt to Head Obama's New 'Jobs and Competitiveness' BoardBy Marc Ambinder

President Obama today will name General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt chairman of the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, the White House announced overnight.

The Jobs and Competitiveness Council's establishment signals that the president believes the economic recovery has entered a new, more productive phase. It will advise the president on job creation policies and on the establishment of a long-term growth strategy. Its composition was not immediately available.

The creation of the new entity coincides with the early February dissolution of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB), which was tasked principally with fixing the financial markets and restoring the American economy to equilibrium. Tonight, the administration formally announced the resignation of PERAB Chairman Paul Volcker. Immelt was one of 17 members of the board.

"Because we still have a long way to go to get Americans back to work and strengthen our economy," the White House announced in a 12:30 am EST statement, "the council will focus on finding new ways to promote growth by investing in American business to encourage hiring, to educate and train our workers to compete globally, and to attract the best jobs and businesses to the United States."

"Over the past two years, my Economic Recovery Advisory Board has provided this administration with support and expertise as we worked to bring our economy back from the brink and start recovering from an economic crisis that cost millions of American jobs," Obama is quoted as saying in the statement. "We still have a long way to go, and my number one priority is to ensure we are doing everything we can to get the American people back to work. As we enter a new phase in our recovery, I have asked the new Council to focus its work on finding new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness."

Immelt, GE's CEO since September 2001, met with the president earlier this week and attended Wednesday's state dinner with Chinese President Hu Jintao. He will guide the president on a tour of GE headquarters in Schenectady, N.Y., today. Immelt, a Republican, donated to both Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain during the last presidential cycle, but not President Obama, according to Bloomberg.

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IMO---Immelt is one of the true bad guys.
No Roger, I don't care that the article says he contributed to Repubs.
Isn't Immelt one of those evil overpaid CEO's you guys hate so bad????